Here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played Saturday on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before tomorrow’s battle against the Illini. This week is a darker episode as we look back at the end of Harry Kipke’s coaching career in 1937 as he squared off against the Maroons of the University of Chicago. [display_podcast] You can check out more on Kipke’s firing including his ties to henchman Harry Bennett here. An excerpt: Those “Private Associates”. This was aimed squarely at Kipke’s pal Mr. Harry Bennett, henchman/head of security at Ford. Henry Ford sent his problems to Bennett and they disappeared. Or were buried up north. Think Joe Pesci in Casino, or perhaps Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction…in fact Bennett looks quite a bit like Mr. Wolf and Pesci, no?: Bennett on the left, with mucho resemblance to the Wolf and Pesci Search and you’ll find anecdotes about Bennett on the web, a favorite of mine: When a Detroit child was kidnapped, Ford, who had a great love for all children, told Bennett to get the child back. Before he could do anything, the father paid a $20,000 ransom and the child was returned. Some hoodlum acquaintances of Bennett got the money back by torturing the kidnaper. The kidnaper went to…
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Big House Big Heart Run – October 3rd
Photo: Maddie LaKind / Michigan Daily Moe’s and Underground Printing have teamed up with The Big House Big Heart Run , they are doing their annual 5K, 10K, and walk this Sunday October 3rd. Details: The race… …starts and finishes at the University of Michigan’s famous football stadium–The Big House. It is the largest stadium in the country seating over 107,000 spectators. This chip-timed 5K and 10K events start on the corner of Kipke and Green and the run takes you through the University of Michigan’s beautiful campus with a spectacular finish–a run through the Big House tunnel and onto the field. You’ll finish on the 50 yard line and watch yourself on the Big House Big Screen! WALKERS, STROLLERS and WHEELCHAIRS WELCOME! Raise Funds for Your Non Profit! Big House Big Heart offers you TWO ways to raise funds for area non profits. Champions for Charity will donate a portion of your entry to ALS research at The University of Michigan Program for Neurology Research & Discovery, the UM Cardiovascular Center and to C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital!Get a team together for your favorite non profit. Champions for Charity will supply you with a fund-raising kit. You and your team can raise thousands of dollars for the charity of your choice just by getting tax…
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1933 Michigan National Champions Charm
A real doozy of an item showed up recently on eBay, described to be a pendant awarded to Michigan’s 1933 national championship team under coach Harry Kipke. Very cool: It appears to be in outstanding condition, made of 14K gold, and assigned to a quarterback named “W.W. Renner”. This appears to be originally the property of a William Renner who was on that ’33 squad and who wore #63: Renner is listed as “Art” on the 1933 team photo caption but as “William W.” on the official roster and in his later years, including when he was captain of the 1935 squad. I think the “Art” reference is an error as there was an Art Renner who played in the 1940s. I’ll let the Bentley know so they can check it out. I rarely use Wikipedia as a research source but the entry on Renner has some excellent detail, including this nugget about the Youngtown, OH native’s exploits against the Buckeyes during that 1933 championship year: In the 1933 Michigan-Ohio State game, played before the largest crowd to see a Big Ten Conference football game to that date, Renner came into the game at the end of the first half and ran the ball for a game-winning touchdown. An Associated Press story described Renner’s impact in the scoring drive against…
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This Week in Michigan Football History
~This Week in Michigan Football History~ Since 2010 as part of WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show, ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ examines a game, player, coach or season in U-M football lore. Are you looking for a speaker on U-M historical topics such as these? Check out my Speaking page for more. Previous episodes of TWIMFbH: 2022 | Season #13 Week 1: GOAT Watch! And 43 to 1. (2016, 1898)Week 2: Pass the Remy (1944, 1994)Week 3: How Michigan Kept AC Warm (1979)Week 4: Foiling A Spartan Plot | (1949)Week 5: Bo Rejects Texas A&M (1977, 1981)Week 6: Kramer of Michigan (1955)Week 7: LC, The First Script Ohio, Touchdown Manningham (2022, 1997, 1932, 2005)Week 8: The Paul, The George, and The Dickinson System (1892, 1932, 1953)Week 9: Yost Gets His Stadium. Stagg Gets Stalled. (1927)Week 10: The Original 7, Edison Films it, The Legend of Lytle (1904, 1978)Week 11: Leaving the Big Ten Conference (1907, 1910, 1977)Week 12: Hail Haskins, Roasting Stagg, Beating Ohio 2021 | Season #12 Week 1: Carr Chooses…Wisely (1999 Notre Dame)Week 2: Denard’s Nod to Ron Kramer (2010); Bo Blasts Badgers (1976)Week 3: Tar Heel Heat (1965), Hello Mike Hart (2004)Week 4: The Legend of Bennie Oosterbaan (1948)Week 5: The Featherweight Fullback, John Maulbetsch (1914, 1926)Week 6: Yost Faces Michigan; Leads…
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eBay Watch: Hand Him the Hustler Award (1990+)
While Wolverine fans tend to toss any great individual performance that occurred during a loss in the circular file, there are a few that stand out. One of those is tailback Jon Vaughn’s 201-yard rushing performance in Gary Moeller’s coaching debut, a thrilling 28-24 loss in South Bend in 1990. Thanks to eBay, we now also know that Vaughn had a little more than game film and the occasional ache/pain to remember that great effort. Evidently Vaughn was the game’s ‘Offensive Hustler’: Yes, apparently Coach Mo not only dealt out helmet stickers, he also handed out Little League second place trophies for individual efforts. Per the auction description: Very rare one of a kind John [sic] Vaughn offensive hustler award for the game on sep 15 1990 vs the notre dame fighting irish. The trophy stand approx 14 inches high. The trophy does have some wear in areas. Please note that this trophy does not specifically mention his name. However i just recently purchased a memoribilia [sic] grouping from John [sic] Vaughn. Vaughn earned more prestigious honors at the end of the season, particular co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. Against Moeller’s advice, Vaughn bolted to the NFL after the season and had a short career in the bigs. Other Hustlers eBay Here’s a couple other guys who deserved…
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Best of eBay Watch – The Top Five
One hundred and fifty eBay Watch posts later, I figured it was time to run down my favorites. To recap, here are items #10-#6, published earlier this week. The Top 5: 5. Suit Up like one of Yost’s Men (posted June 15, 2009) Probably the most remarkable auction of Michigan lore I’ve seen on eBay. A freaking Yost-era uniform – belt, pants, helmet, and shoes – from the early 1910s up for sale. What else can you say? I guess the question is what does one do with this stuff? Put it on display in the man cave or home office? It absolutely belongs in Schembechler Hall or at the Bentley Library. I’m not sure what happened to it but it fetched a lot of bucks that’s for certain. Read the original post here. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 4. Coach Mac wants his Mojo Back (posted January 2008) Many ring-on-eBay dramas have played on this site thanks to eBay Watch. Recently you’ve had the former assistant Scot Loeffler/pawn shop ‘97 ring imbroglio, which is still playing out. Then in 2008 you have the Allen Bishop 1986 Rose Bowl ring saga. Arguably…
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Best of eBay Watch – #10-#6
I did some house cleaning recently on the eBay Watch Index, the year-by-year tally of all the eBay Watch posts from these pages from over the years. The list now spans over 150 entries and given the excellent lists floating around on the web as we await kickoff of the season, I thought it’d be a good time to run down my favorites to date. Counting down from 10: 10. Michigan Baseball Visits Japan (1932) (posted December 15, 2008) I don’t feature common items like tickets or programs very often in this series, but this was one special stub. It’s a torn ticket from one of the games the Michigan baseball team played in Japan in 1932. How this ended up preserved and in an a US auction I have no idea. An MVictors reader was kind enough to translate shortly after I posted it: From an excellent summary published in Michigan Today in 1998, it all started with baseball teams from Japan doing a college tour in the US years earlier, with many of the stops in Ann Arbor from 1911 to 1925. Then in 1929, Michigan coach Ray Fisher got an invite from the Meiji University inviting the maize and blue to visit Japan as “ambassadors of good will.” Fielding Yost and the board of athletics approved the…
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Michigan captain Whitey Wistert’s ID (1931)
Here’s an auction of the U-M student identification card for the 1931-32 school year for the first of the legendary Wistert brothers: Francis Michael ‘Whitey’ Wistert: As the card indicates, Francis was a Chicago native and after graduating from high school worked in a factory building radios. A decision to tag along with a classmate on a visit to Ann Arbor effectively kicked off the Michigan-Wistert tradition. Several online references claim Whitey had no football background before coming to Michigan, but he is enshrined into his high school Hall of Fame for “Baseball and Football”. Oh and yes, he could also play some baseball—he was named Big Ten MVP his senior season. Whitey anchored the line for Harry Kipke’s back-to-back national championship squads in 1932-1933, and the 6-2, 210-pound stapping lad was named All-American in ‘33: I’ve written on the Wistert Trio before but in a nutshell, each played football for Michigan of course, each played tackle, each wore 11, all three made it into the college football Hall of Fame and they are the reason you won’t ever see another U-M football player wear jersey number eleven. Also included is an ID from 1938 when Wistert returned to assist Harry Kipke and his staff:
